WRITING TOPIC — SPRING CLEANING (HOMEMADE CLEANING REMEDIES)

I spent yesterday up to my elbows in dust bunnies, paper filing, and boxes of old memories. I have started Spring Cleaning. In the middle of this seasonal ritual, I stopped to read an old letter that revealed a secret, found a bulging folder full of fun city facts dated about the time Indria (our home) was purchased, and discovered a buried file that Liz had labeled Essential Oils and Homemade Air Fresheners. I thought it would be fun to post the old-fashioned cleaning remedies. Have you ever tried Borax, white vinegar, Ivory soap?

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Homemade Cleaning Remedies

All Purpose Cleaner I

All Purpose Cleaner II

Fill a 32 oz spray bottle nearly full with water. Add a squirt or two of Ivory liquid dish soap. Put the sprayer back on and gently shake the bottle until the soap has been evenly distributed. Use Ivory because most other dish soaps leave behind a filmy residue. Ivory is especially safe for Corion, marble and wood counter tops and butcher blocks. And it’s safe to use on brass or gold plated faucets.

Carpet Cleaner

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Homemade Air Fresheners for Household Odors

Cinnamon & Cloves

Boil the spices for a fragrant smell. For ease of cleaning, make a cheesecloth bag to contain the spices, and boil the cheesecloth bag. An excellent alternative when entertaining is to steep spiced tea or cider.

Oil of Wintergreen

Dampen cotton balls with oil of wintergreen and place out of sight, but where air will touch them.

Vinegar

Distribute partially filled saucers of vinegar around the room or boil 1 tablespoon of white vinegar in 1 cup of water to eliminate unpleasant cooking odors.

Vanilla

Place pure vanilla on a cotton ball in a small saucer. Place the saucer in the car or refrigerator to remove odors. Vanilla is renowned to remove even skunk odors. Keep the cotton ball out of reach of children; vanilla has a high alcohol content.

Baking Soda

Place a partially filled box of baking soda on the refrigerator shelf. Replace every 2 months. Pour the contents of the used box down the drain to remove odors and keep the drain clean. Baking soda can also be used to deodorize bottles by filling them with undiluted baking soda and allowing the bottles to soak overnight. Then wash as usual. (To read about the difference between baking soda and baking powder, see WRITING TOPIC — COOKING FIASCOS.)

Borax

To inhibit growth of odor-producing molds and bacteria, sprinkle 1/2 cup Borax in the bottom of the garbage can. Empty garbage frequently and clean the can as needed.

Vinegar Or Celery Stalk

To avoid or remove onion odors from your hands, rub white vinegar on your hands before and after slicing. Rubbing hands with the end of a celery stalk will also remove the odor.

Potpourri

Buy or make your own potpourri from your favorite herbs and spices. Place the potpourri in a small basket or jar or in small sachet bags.

Ventilation

Open windows or doors in the house for at least a short period every day. This will help to reduce toxic fumes that may build up indoors.

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We have written about cleanliness and attitudes about staying clean in WRITING TOPIC — CLEANLINESS. But seasonal cleaning rituals set a different tone. What home remedies were passed down in your family? What are your favorite cleaning tools (I’m fond of Wanda Wooley). How clean is clean?

Do you do windows once a year, twice a year? Does your entire family pitch in on the seasonal cleaning of your house, or does it fall to you. In Minnesota, Spring arrives late after a long Winter. Do you start your Spring Cleaning in February, March, April, or May? You can even write about how you hate Spring Cleaning!

Get out your fast writing pen, your laptop, or a spiral notebook and do a Writing Practice on Spring Cleaning. Fifteen minutes, Go!

14 Responses

Thanks for the homemade remedies and the list of products you can use as air fresheners around the house. It was really informative and I may try it some day to see whether it’s effects are really that good.

I love the vanilla and wintergreen smell idea. So simple and those words always congure up yummy things in my mind, cookies and mint ice cream.

Spring cleaning is definately in the air at my house too. I’ve actually been reading a most excellent book called, The Productive Writer by Sage Cohen. I am learning how my disorganization and messiness (in all areas of life) are impacting my ability to be more effective and productive with my writing. Thus, I have been cleaning computer files, alphabetizing books, donating books to the library, etc. For some of you this is easy stuff, but for me, I feel as if I have started a personal revolution.

Thanks for some additional tips to put this topic into tangible focus.

I’m probably the worst when it comes to cleaning in general! If I do clean (including spring cleaning), I’m very obsessive-compulsive about it. If I can’t find the time to clean or don’t feel like cleaning, I’m on the other extreme. That is not to say that I’m highly disorganized, but I have my things in organized clutters around my room (sorted in piles pretty much).

I don’t exactly follow spring cleaning. I mostly do my own “spring cleaning” when the semester for school ends. I have loads of paper and junk to throw away! For the past couple of months, I was happy to put together about 7-8 trash bags’ worth of gently used clothes and other items we haven’t used for years. We donated those bags of stuff to Goodwill. I felt so much better after that!

I don’t think there were any home remedies that were passed down in my family. However, most cleaning techniques/tools consist of isopropyl or ethyl alcohol, Bleach, water, Windex, Comet, dishwashing soap, and something that smells good like Pinesol. We mix a few of these together, depending on what we’re cleaning.

Windows are probably done once a year. We have so many windows now that we have a much bigger house! My family and I do our own “spring cleaning” at various, random (and individual) times throughout the year, mostly before family ocassions or holidays.

I can agree with Teresa. Having a somewhat cluttered room does affect my ability to function in the way I’d like to function. For instance, it’s kind of hard to study when I have a messy desk/table!

Thanks for this writing topic! I am guilty of not having started my spring cleaning because I’m working and going to school most of the time. And when I’m not doing those two things, all I want is leisure time and catching up on sleep! 😛 I’m interested and curious on what others have to say with this topic!

Love this post. Since I grew up in a household with my grandmother and great-grandmother, we were always using basic items to mix up a cleaning solution. They didn’t believe in using those new-fangled and EXPENSIVE store bought products! Ha!

I don’t remember the exact recipes–too bad they were never written down–but I sure remember squeezing lots of lemons, lots of vinegar, too.

We threw the house open about mid March–this was western Illinois–and cleaned the three story house from top to bottom.

The job I hated the most doing was stripping the “old” wax off the linoleum–the hard work–but I was never deemed old enough to apply the fresh coat of shiny wax. And, oh, I wanted to smooth that wax on the floor, like frosting a cake almost. Swish, swish, so smooth, almost like glass.

We washed windows twice a year, using water and vinegar. Dried them with newspaper. We removed the glass storm windows in spring, replaced them with the screens. Then reversed the ordeal in fall. It was a scary job, my dad on the tallest of ladders, reaching for heavy glass from my hands, then hinging it onto the top of the frame. Do not miss that activity at all!

Bo, Teresa, and Lotus, so much fun to read your comments on the seasonal rituals of cleaning in your homes.

Bo, love the image of cleaning the three story from top to bottom. I think I have always lived in one story homes, now that I think about it.

Lotus, it’s hard to keep up when you are going to school. It’s so consuming to be taking classes and working. I admire how much you seem to be able to get done in a week!

Teresa, The Productive Writer sounds like it’s firing you up. I like the name Sage.

For some reason, I seem to remember my mother’s cleaning rituals the most when we lived in the South and I was a young child. I will never forget the smell of Johnson’s paste wax on the wood floors. I love that smell. And the hum of the buffer polishing them to a clean shine.

Will have to see what else comes out in the Writing Practice. I also thought of the Writing Topic in terms of cleaning house emotionally. A kind of letting go. Thanks to all for stopping by.

[…] Other pieces of Bob’s in which he writes with humor and compassion about his family members include: Aunt Annie’s Scalloped Oysters and The Law Of Threes. He also published these pieces about the life and death of his mother: Hands and In Memoriam. And he produced a trilogy about his father: My Father’s Witness, Bearing Witness, and My Life With Dad. Spring Cleaning In The Attic Of My Mind was inspired by the birthday anniversary of Bob’s father and Writing Topic — Spring Cleaning. […]

[…] About Judith: Judith Ford is a psychotherapist and writer who lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was red Ravine’s very first guest writer, with the piece 25 Reasons I Write. Judith’s other pieces on red Ravine include lang•widge, Mystery E.R., I Write Because, and PRACTICE – Door – 20min. Spring Cleaning is based on a 15 minute Writing Practice on WRITING TOPIC — SPRING CLEANING. […]

@QM, Come to think of it, sometimes I have no idea how I get my personal errands and cleaning done, but I do. I think it’s usually done a little bit each day given if I’m not too exhausted or come home so late from work and/or school.

Sage Cohen has wonderful books. I have one of her books called WRITING THE LIFE POETIC. It’s a great book with lots of poetry exercises, but I’ve been using it for art and writing exercises in general. 8)